The Drugs Don't Work
by ademchrome
Summary: Forced to adjust her life completely during senior year, Elsa finds trouble dealing with her emotions, her powers and a certain redhead. Alternate Universe, still has some powers, Elsanna but not-related. Rated T. Please Review and follow or favourite for future chapters. Trigger Warnings for chapters where relevant.
1. Chapter 1 - Relocation

I don't own the rights to Frozen or any of its characters. This is made purely non-profit for my own literary benefit.

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><p>It had all been going so well. Elsa had been quite happy in school, she'd finished her junior year with great grades and plenty of fantastic friends and was eager to finish her studies the next year but that all changed when her father was fired from his job. He was a manager at a tavern called Frosthaven Bar 'n' Grill which was one of the more popular eateries in the area and was pulling quite a handsome salary but that disappeared when his boss caught him handing out free meals to some of his friends. Needless to say, unemployment soon followed and that's why they now had to move to Arendelle.<p>

His boss had made it impossible for him to find a job in the area and when James had approached his daughter about the job opportunity at Arendelle Municipal Bank she had initially been overjoyed but that soon faded when she realised that she'd have to move to a place 7 hours away from everything and everyone she'd ever known.

Today was moving day and she flicked the tears from her cheeks as she packed up her most precious belongings. She was shuffling through her old yearbooks on the top shelf in her cupboard and knew that she'd never see any of these people again. She ran her hands idly across each page as she turned them, seemingly drawing some happiness from each smiling face and scribbled signature beneath them. She laughed at one page which was from last year where her entire year level had made wacky poses and she could see herself with a scrunched up face poking her tongue at the camera.

She heard the door handle to her room wiggle and quickly closed the book and shoved it in the box beside her as her father poked his head in the doorway.

"Elsa, honey," he called out, waiting for his daughter to turn to him. She didn't.

"Yes?" she responded as she threw more of her books into the box. She blamed him for everything that was going on. She knew it was wrong to do so but who else could she blame? If he hadn't messed up, he would still have his job and she'd not have to be uprooting her life completely.

James sighed and knew the pain that she was going through. It had been a once off thing. The first and only time he'd ever given someone something for free and his boss happened to be watching the cameras at that moment. He put his hand up to his forehead and tried to rub the memory away. "Darling, the truck just pulled up. I'm going to help with the heavy stuff but can you make sure you're fully packed in at most an hour. We've got a long drive and I don't want to keep them waiting.

Elsa thought about yelling at him to leave her alone and fix the pain she felt but she didn't have the energy to do so, "I will dad."

James thought about lingering but decided that she probably didn't want him around, "alright then, if you need anything..." he left the sentence open, hoping that she would respond but Elsa just froze for a few seconds and then continued packing her things in silence. He sighed again and closed the door behind him as he rushed to the front door to greet the movers.

Elsa could feel a single tear cascade down her left cheek. It was really happening. She was leaving Frosthaven for Arendelle in only an hour. She'd already said goodbye to her friends and they'd all promised to stay in touch but Elsa knew that the distance between them would cause them all to lose connection. She reached her fingers up to her face and attempted to wipe away the tear but realised that it had frozen into a solid teardrop.

Her hand flinched back before realising what had happened. She lowered her hands and walked to her bedside table and reached inside the drawer. She grabbed a bottle, popped open the cap and threw her head back as she dropped one of the tablets into her mouth. She picked up the water bottle that she always had next to her bed and swallowed the tablet. The effects would kick in within moments so she stood and continued her tasks.

10 minutes later, as she was listening to the movers loudly moving their furniture into the truck mixed with the chirping of birds outside her window, she could feel the tear that she'd momentarily forgotten about start rolling down her cheek again. She quickly wiped it away and turned to her chest of drawers to pack her clothes. They were the last thing that she needed to do before leaving but she had the least motivation to do it. It took her half an hour to pack the rest of her things before she started carrying them all outside to the truck in their driveway.

About half an hour later, her father put the car in gear and hit the gas. They slowly drove forward and Elsa hung her head out the window to watch their house, their home, recede away from them. She noticed the 'for lease' sign had already been planted as they followed the moving truck down their street and pretty soon the house was but a memory as it fell from view. Elsa slowly sat back in her seat and wound her window up before freezing.

James had been preoccupied with driving the car and didn't notice her daughter sobbing to herself quietly. A minute or so later when they were on the highway, he took the opportunity to look over and saw Elsa had curled up against the door in sleep. He softly put his hands on her knee and patted her just once.

"I'm so sorry, Elsa. I will never fail you again."

He had said that more to himself than anything, to make a promise to himself to put her first. He retracted his hand and focused again on driving, not realising that his words had not fallen on deaf ears.

The next few days flew by quickly. It was now Friday and school started up again next week. James had worked a couple days already and he told Elsa about how much his boss praised him for how quickly he was picking everything up. Elsa of course smiled and congratulated her dad but her heart wasn't in it. She desperately wanted to feel happy for him, that he'd finally found a job and that he was enjoying it but all she could think about was how alone she felt all the time. Whenever she started feeling those thoughts enter her mind, she immediately felt guilty as well, further compounding how terrible she felt.

She'd hoped that her father couldn't tell how depressed she was becoming. She tried to reassure herself that school next week would come around and the people would be welcoming and her life would slowly piece itself back together. Only time would tell.

James had already enrolled Elsa into Arendelle Secondary School and her report card was outstanding enough that any school would surely have accepted her but little did either of them know that all she would have pretty much needed to be accepted would have been a heartbeat and a tuition payment. Arendelle was not known for their academic record, having been the worst scoring in the county for many years with little prospect of ever improving. The suburb of Greater Arendelle was a poor neighbourhood with many socio-economic problems such as drugs and unemployment so most of the students came from below the poverty line with very little motivation to succeed.

When James had told Elsa that he'd organised for the school to adjust their route to pick her up to take her to school she immediately rejected him and said she'd be happy to walk to get the exercise. The last thing she needed was for everyone to know that she was the reason that they had to wake up and arrive home 5 minutes earlier and later. She quickly ordered him to call the school back to stop them from making those changes and he reluctantly agreed.

Elsa looked around her room. It was much smaller than her old room, made worse by the fact that she had still not unpacked any of her belongings. It was cozy enough though and she welcomed the view out her window to the mountains in the distance. It was the middle of summer today and she'd never liked the heat much so she stayed indoors while her dad was outside cooking on the barbecue for a couple of coworkers that he'd invited over for dinner. Elsa had greeted them earnestly when they'd arrived but quickly excused herself, not wishing to interfere on her dad's acquainting.

She drew back her blinds and let the twilight sun enter through the venetians. She reached under and pushed the window up a few inches and felt the warm summer breeze immediately wash over her hands. It had been ridiculously hot during the day and she'd literally sat in front of the air conditioner for 4 hours watching television due to being incapable of functioning more than 5 metres from it but the evening breeze was definitely something that she couldn't say no to. She'd heard on the news report earlier that a cool change was to flow through at around 5 and it was now almost 6. She could hear chatter from her dad and the 2 men he'd invited over but in the distance she could hear dogs barking, bicycle bells ringing and cars revving as they took off. It wasn't the same feeling as Frosthaven, much more active, but so far she hadn't thought of it much as a bad thing, just different.

She put a hand on the window and it started to freeze under her touch straight away. She pulled her hand back at the sudden temperature drop before sighing and clenching her first in front of her. She made her way to her vanity and opened a small pouch which was in the middle underneath the mirror. She unclipped it and drew out a tablet, the same she'd take the day of their move. Strange, it'd only been a couple days since the last occurrence, usually one pill a fortnight was enough. She shrugged and swallowed down the pill before making her way back to greet her house-guests politely. She tried to think of it as been a supportive daughter but in reality all she was interested in was satiating a massive hunger that suddenly had overwhelmed her.

Dinner was enjoyable enough and took Elsa's mind off a lot of things that had been on it but as soon as she had eaten, she saw little reason to linger for very long so she left for her room shortly after gathering and rinsing her dishes. She still hadn't set up her television or computer and quickly became bored so she lay her head down on her pillow and was surprised at how quickly sleep overcame her.

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><p>Please let me take a moment to describe a little backstory.<p>

Elsa's powers surfaced at adolescence and has had them suppressed with pharmaceuticals as she is unable to control them without their help. Elsa's mother died during childbirth and her dad has had to raise her on his own. Elsa is a lesbian in this story so if you aren't interested in reading anything like that, please do not read any further.

While Anna is not mentioned in this chapter, or probably not the next either, she will be a part of this story and she will be Elsa's love interest so, again, if you aren't interested in reading a story about Elsa and Anna's relationship, please do not continue to read.

Kristoff, Olaf and Hans (and to some extent Sven) will all make appearances in the story but their roles will be minor/supporting.

**WARNINGS:** This story will contain several issues that many may find disturbing but also please note that I may change the story in the future to include other issues as well. **Bullying, suicide, physical and verbal abuse, sex scenes and child theft** will be found in this story so, based on that, the rating may change to M depending on how graphically I choose to depict those scenes (probably will).

In terms of smut, I will probably not do so as I don't want to feel as if I'm writing pornography. If that's something that you're after though, you will unfortunately not find it here.

If you're wondering how often I will update this story, then I'm sorry but I can not give you a guarantee or schedule. I work a rotating roster and very long shifts which leave me with a kind of opportunistic writing time. I am looking to make this story go for approximately 50,000 words or roughly 25 chapters, but we'll see how that ends up panning out.

Thank you for choosing to read my story and I hope you find it as enjoyable as I do in writing it.


	2. Chapter 2 - First Contact

Welcome back and enjoy the read!

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><p>-Bzzt-<p>

Elsa rolled her head on her pillow in irritation.

-Bzzt-

An eye popped open and she looked for the source of the disturbance. Her alarm clock. It read 7:01 back to her. She groaned and rolled away from it. She told herself she only needed another 5 minutes.

-Bzzt-

She threw her covers off and lay on her back. She was never going to be able to get any more sleep now. She looked up at the ceiling and admired how the morning sun flew through the leaves in the tree near her window and cast beautiful shadows above her.

-Bzzt-

She shook her head and pressed the snooze button on top of her clock. She swung her legs out over the side of her bed and stopped for a moment to gather her senses before making her way to the bathroom to prepare for school.

She made it half way down the hallway before she stopped dead in her tracks. School! It was her first day today! She ran to the bathroom and closed the door behind her, probably too loudly as the sound of it slamming rang for a few moments. Her heart-rate quickened as the anxiety of what would be the first day of her senior year gripped her. She took a deep breath and somehow that seemed to calm her down completely so she grabbed the shower faucet and started running the hot water. Unfortunately, this house wasn't equipped with a constant hot-water heater so she had to wait about 30 seconds before the water was warm enough to use. She started disrobing before entering the shower unit, relishing the warm water as it massaged her skin. She hummed to herself as she showered, something she almost always did, and thought about random things. The first thought that came to her head was why a hot-water heater was called a hot-water heater. Shouldn't it be called a cold-water heater, as that's what it did. Why would you need to heat up hot water?

She continued showering before hearing a knock on the door. She paused before hearing her dad's voice call out.

"Honey, are you ok?" he seemed concerned, "you've been in there for over half an hour now."

Elsa was shocked. She never took long showers and initially didn't believe him but a quick look at the wrinkly pads of her fingers proved that she'd been under the water for far too long.

"Sorry, dad," she immediately called out as she switched off the water, "I completely lost track of time." She pulled the shower curtain back and reached for her towel, drying herself and throwing it around her body. She opened the door and her dad was standing right there with a worried look on his face. She reached out and grabbed both of her shoulders before lowering his head down so their eyes were on the same level.

"Elsa, if there's something wrong, anything at all, I want you to come to me straight away and tell me," he stared at her and it unnerved her so much that she couldn't hold his gaze.

"Dad, I'm fine," she made to leave but he held her firmly.

"Elsa, I mean it. Anything," he reiterated before dropping his hands and releasing his grasp of her, "it's your first day of school, are you excited?"

Elsa rolled her eyes and smiled at the goofy look on his face. She really couldn't stay mad at him. She'd sort of blamed him for the upending of their lives but he was a fighter and he loved her so unconditionally that she could do nothing but feel love back for him.

"Excitement is one of many favourable emotions I feel about this morning," Elsa started walking away, leaving James with a grin on his face. She didn't want him to see the just as goofy look that was plastered on her face as well and was glad that her back was towards him. She opened her door and threw her towel on the floor before starting to get dressed for school.

James entered the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror to start shaving. He thought to himself about how Elsa really wasn't the most socially adept person he'd ever known, in fact she was probably one of the least. She kind of reminded him of a Vulcan from Star Trek but he'd probably be killed by her if he ever told her that. He entered the shower and shut the curtain behind him before bathing for his first real working day.

Elsa had 2 outfits in front of her and she didn't know which one to go with. She knew that this would be a day of first impression and she had wanted to impress but she didn't know what kind of clothing that everyone else would be wearing. Her last school had worn uniforms so there was never really any issue or competition about what was worn as everyone wore the same thing.

Elsa furrowed her brows and just went with jeans and a plain shirt, surely she couldn't go wrong with that. She threw the shirt over her head, dislodging one of her bra straps so she reached under her collar to retrieve it. She grabbed her jeans and pulled them up her legs before grabbing her favourite belt and threading it through the loops. She'd lost a little weight over the holidays so she did actually need a belt in order to keep most of her pants on. She pulled some socks on before putting on her shoes and grabbed her backpack from the foot of her bed which had already been packed in preparation the night before. She motioned towards her door before remembering her pills and running over to her vanity to grab them. She opened the front pocket and dumped them gracelessly inside before zipping it back up and making her way to the kitchen for a quick breakfast.

Her dad was already at the kitchen bench hovering around the toaster and as soon as he noticed her the toaster pinged and the bread popped up from inside. He quickly grabbed all 4 pieces and put them on 2 plates.

"Here's some toast for you," he called her over and she gave him a little grin, "I figured you'd only want a quick snack seeing as how you don't have much time to get to school now that you took such a long shower."

Elsa was about to retort but her interrupted her, "don't worry though, just eat up and I'll drive you to school today. I want to get to work early anyway." He wasn't supposed to start until 9:30 and school started at 8:30.

"Dad! That's like an hour early!" Elsa complained, "I can't make you do that!"

"You're not making me do anything, and like I said, I want to make a good first impression," he responded before grabbing a knife and buttering his two slices. Elsa took this opportunity to saunter over and do the same with hers, "isn't that also what you want to do for your first day."

Her dad was more observant than pretty much everyone gave him credit for. "Of course I want to impress everyone Dad," Elsa hardly ever lied to her dad but she gave up trying to convince him from driving her, "but if you want to drive me to school then I guess I'm grateful for the help. Don't make a habit of it though as I don't want to be seen by the school populace as being a lazy old geezer like you!" She nudged his shoulder with her own and chuckled softly as she added peanut butter to her toast.

She felt a push back and had to step sideways to stop from falling over, "just because I'm older than you, don't think for one second that I won't take you on!" Elsa tried not to laugh but couldn't help it. It was pretty much like it was in Frosthaven. As soon as the thought floated across her mind, she frowned and took her plate quietly to the table. Her dad seemingly knew what was going through her head but didn't say anything. If she wanted to talk about it then she would approach him. They had built a very open and trusting relationship over a long time and knew how each other handled situations. Elsa really did appreciate how wonderful a father he'd been, especially seeing as how he'd had to do it alone since she was born.

She'd never really missed her mother as she'd never known her. She had died during Elsa's birth of some kind of pneumonia which had infected her bloodstream and had only lived a couple of hours with her daughter. Whenever the topic came up, Elsa could see the turmoil that James went through. A piece of him had gone with her and had never fully repaired itself.

Breakfast passed in silence before they both stood and threw their dishes into the dishwasher and James made his way to the study to grab his briefcase while Elsa put away the food. The both met again at the front door 15 seconds later and hopped in the car together.

Elsa had wanted to lighten the mood a little but didn't really know what to say. She'd sort of put this wall around herself as soon as she'd known that they were moving out of Frosthaven and both she and her dad didn't really know yet how to deal with it. Sometimes she just wanted to yell and scream and vent all of her frustrations at him and sometimes she wished he'd ask her how she felt but at no point had ever happened and it didn't seem likely that it ever would.

Before she knew it, they'd pulled up in front of her school and she stared at the front of it. It seemed like a typical school from all the movies with red brick and two storeys, with banners across the front and plenty of flat grass all around. Plenty of people had already arrived and seemed to be wearing similar sorts of clothing to herself so she sighed in relief at that before hesitantly reaching out for the door handle.

"Hey!" James called out and grabbed her by the shoulder, forcing her to look back at him, "you didn't think you'd leave without a kiss did you?"

Elsa blushed, "Dad! I can't be seen kissing you!"

"Too bad!" He leaned over and kissing her softly on the cheek. She didn't pull away but blushed deeper regardless, hoping that no-one saw her and if they did then they didn't care.

"Dad, I swear I'm gonna murder you one day," she reached down to grab her backpack and opened her door quickly before leaning back through, "thanks for the lift Dad. I love you."

"I love you too sweetheart," he smiled, making her smile back at him, "tell me how your day went when I get home! No boyfriends!" He laughed as she rolled her eyes and slammed the door. He didn't know that there was actually zero chance of that happening.

He watched as she turned around and drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly, physically preparing for the onslaught that is senior year. As she walked several paces ahead, he slowly pulled out, making his way to his work. She was smart and practical, she'd be fine. He told himself that to reassure himself but in his heart he wasn't so sure. This school was a lot different than her last and wasn't anywhere near her comfort zone. He hoped that she'd find a great friendship group right off the bat and not get caught up in all the bad stuff he'd heard on Friday night about this school that his coworkers had told him.

Elsa, meanwhile, knew nothing about the dark side to this school and nonchalantly made her way up the steps. She smiled back friendlily at those who eyed her curiously and was happy when most of them responded in kind. She was surprised at the metal detectors at each entrance door but nonetheless succumbed to the inspection before making her way to the front desk. She was about 15 minutes early to school today and had to find out where both her locker and her home room was as well as where her classes were to be held.

There was a small line so she waited patiently as people were quickly attended to and within a couple minutes she was being addressed. "Hi, my name is Elsa Lambert and I'm..."

"Please repeat your name," the lady interrupted her before she could explain further.

"Elsa Lambert," Elsa repeated, a little annoyed at the tone she'd used. The lady flicked through a stack of folders and grabbed one as she perused them. She pulled on it and passed it to Elsa before calling out dismissively, "Next!"

Elsa was rudely shoved sideways as another teenager stood in her place.

"Name?" the lady asked again.

"Jacqueline Fitzpatrick," she was quite tall and muscular and looked like she participated in some sort of contact sport. The lady again shuffled through her stack and found the girls file and handed it to her, calling out _Next! _and again and the cycle repeated. It seems that this is what was done and only new students did differently. Jacqueline turned to her and eyed her suspiciously. She still hadn't moved from when she had been pushed and was blocking the larger girls way. Elsa instinctively stepped back and made space for her to walk past, which she did with a distinct look of superiority on her face.

Today was not going too well so far. She sighed and made her way to the closest empty space on a wall and leaned up against it to look through her folder properly. She peeled the paperclip off and flicked across the pages. It seems that it had most of the school information in a booklet as well as her classes and what times and locations they were being held. She quickly went for both the map of the school and her timetable, taking a bit longer to find the map before realising it was on the back cover of the booklet.

She looked at Monday and saw she had a free fifth period. Strange, this school had only 6 periods whereas her last had had 8 a day. Regardless, she then looked at her first class. Environmental studies. She groaned as she remembered how boring History and Geography had been last year. She looked again at her roster and saw that her class started at 9am, not at 8:30am, so she looked down the bottom and saw that home room was carried out first thing every morning. Her home room was in room E13 and a quick look at the map showed her that she actually wasn't far from it at all. She quickly gathered up her papers and threw them all in her backpack before zipping it together and heading down the hall. E block was directly adjacent to the main building and her home room was on the ground floor so she was at her room in no time.

She took a look around and saw a few people shuffling around up and down the hall but no-one was stopping at her room which seemed curious as surely there'd be a lot of people in the same class as her. She looked at her watch and she had 2 minutes left until the bell and knew that something was wrong so she dug into her backpack again and checked her folder again. She looked at the timetable and everything looked in order but then she turned it over and saw that Monday home room was written down as being year level assembly in the Glacèe Auditorium.

Immediately she went into a panic and froze. Elsa gathered her senses a bit and looked at her map. She scanned around for what she was looking for and groaned when she saw how far away the auditorium was. Nonetheless, she gathered her things again and hastily made her way in the right direction. This day was definitely not going well at all!

Upon reaching the auditorium, she saw that the building was absolutely overwhelming in size. She grabbed the handle for the door and gently gave it a tug and blushed when she realised that it opened inwards and instead pushed on the door. The door slowly gave way and about half way through she could see inside and into the hall. At least a thousand students were assembled sitting down all facing away from her towards the stage where someone was making announcements behind a podium. She pushed the door a bit further and the door make a gut-wrenching squeal as its hinges were obviously not well maintained. It felt to Elsa as though everyone in the hall looked over at her simultaneously.

She hung her head low and gritted her teeth as she strained to push the door open enough for her to squeeze through and then closed the door immediately after and made her way to the side of the hall, finding a seat and sitting in it as low as she possibly could. It felt as though it was boiling hot inside the theatre. She hung her head low and tried to concentrate on the words of the speaker to take her mind off her embarrassment.

"Hey," the person next to her tried to get her attention but Elsa seemed oblivious to him. He gave her a nudge on the shoulder and she looked up at him. He quickly brushed his blonde hair from his eyes and smiled down at her. "Hi, my name is Kristoff," he said as he held his hand out for her to shake. She tentatively grabbed his hand and smiled back. She was clearly flustered at her entrance.

"I.. name.. Sa," she stuttered as she tried to respond which caused him to chuckle.

"Listen, don't worry about your entrance. It happens all the time," Kristoff tried to calm her down as he released her hand and lat back in his chair, "what's your name?"

Elsa took a deep breath and tried to relax herself, "Elsa," she answered and surprised herself when her voice came out calmly.

"See, that wasn't so hard. We should listen to the school address and then I'll help you get to your first class," Kristoff advised.

"You don't have to.." Elsa tried to dissuade him for the help but he interrupted her.

"Listen, I can tell that you're new and the least I can do is make you feel welcome here," Kristoff grinned over to her.

Elsa gave him a piercing look, "how do you know that I'm new?"

Kristoff actually laughed at that, "anyone with any sort of knowledge of this school would not have tried to enter the assembly after it had started. You either make it on time or you wait until first period. Clearly, you are new."

Elsa blushed a bit but pursed her lips to stop from talking back. She focused on what was being said at the front of the hall and it seemed as though curricular announcements were being made by the principal and the faculty heads. After about 20 more minutes of boring announcements, most of which Elsa wasn't interested in, they were all dismissed and allowed to leave for first period.

Elsa made to stand but Kristoff casually grabbed her sleeve and stopped her. "Just wait, Elsa," he advised.

"Huh?" Elsa looked puzzled but she turned and saw a large group of rough-looking students walking past the end of her aisle who were pushing people out of their way as they walked seemingly without any worries. When they exited the auditorium, Kristoff pulled Elsa up and motioned for her to start leaving.

"Elsa, you don't want to get on their bad side," Kristoff commented, "those kids are the worst of the worst. Bullies, each of them, through and through."

"I ran into one of them earlier today already," Elsa got a little worried, "I saw her just then with that group. Jacqueline something."

Kristoff stopped her, "Mackenzie?" Elsa nodded in response and he hung his head low. "Keep your head down for a while please Elsa. She's their leader, so to speak. If you've got on her bad side then she will be relentless all year in making you feel miserable each and every day."

Elsa gulped as the bright morning sun hit her face as they walked through the threshold. "Let me see your timetable?" Kristoff quickly changed the subject and Elsa rummaged through her backpack to again retrieve her papers before showing her timetable to Kristoff. He took a look and whistled in approval at her subjects. "Seems you've picked a lot of subjects. You've got Environmental first up though, do you need help getting to class?"

"No, I already looked where that class is being held," Elsa shook her head at him.

"Alright, well if you have a free period on either side of lunch then you're allowed to leave the school grounds but otherwise it's detention, at least if you're caught, and I don't think I need to tell you what happens if you're late?"

Elsa shook her head again, "I know how school works."

Kristoff took another look at her timetable, "Oh! Great, you're in my home room. The only subject we share is Physical Education and we don't have that today so I'll see you tomorrow for home room I guess."

Elsa took her timetable back when he offered it and threw him a smile, "thanks for the help.. assuming that's what it was because you didn't really tell me anything that I didn't already know."

Kristoff smiled over to her, "you probably don't know anyone here do you?"

"No," she responded, "I moved here from Frosthaven."

"Wow! That's ages away," Kristoff exclaimed, "I'd ask you about it more but we've gotta get to class. How about we meet up in the cafeteria for lunch? I sit towards the C-block entrance, that is... if you wanted to."

Elsa guessed that he was trying to ask her out, in a round-about sort of way. She liked Kristoff but she wasn't interested in him sexually, in fact she wasn't interested in any man sexually. She was a lesbian, she'd known for quite a while now. Whenever she saw girls dressed scantily, she'd feel strange in her groin and she never got that feeling from seeing guys and eventually she put two-and-two together and realised that she liked women. She didn't see any harm in spending lunch with him at school and so far he was the only person that had shown any interest in her.

"Sure, Kristoff," she smiled, "I'll keep my eye out in the cafeteria."

"Great!" he waved goodbye to her and hurried off to his first class and Elsa sighed before making her way over to her first class. She made it to her class a few minutes before it started and took a seat inside and watched as many classmates filtered into the room before her teacher shut the door and the lesson began. She tried to concentrate as her teacher scribbled on the board behind her and this repeated during her Math and English classes before lunch rolled around. She already felt exhausted from the long day and it wasn't even half over.

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><p>Hope you enjoyed, please review or message me at what you thought of it, good or bad. I can take criticism so lay it on me if you want to. By the way, I don't really engage in spoilers so I'll never let slip any of them, but my writing is hardly good enough to cover up any plot twists anyway so it shouldn't be too hard to see where I'm going with the story.<p>

Take care all and thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3 - Friendship

Sorry for the delay with this update but I have been busy. Next chapter is here now so please read and enjoy (hopefully).

**Warning: Bullying.**

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><p>Elsa pushed open the cafeteria doors. The whole area was abuzz with activity as students and faculty alike indulged in their lunch. The room was very loud with chatter and laughter and people were running around and gallivanting in small groups. Elsa walked over to the food stand and waited in line.<p>

It didn't take long for Elsa to be served so she grabbed a tray and started helping herself to the food as she walked along. She was never a big eater and today was no different as she chose a small bowl of salad, a couple of rissoles and bottled water. She went to the checkout and paid her cashier before making her way in what she hoped was the correct direction that Kristoff had given her earlier.

Elsa made her way towards the door and stopped when she couldn't find Kristoff and stood somewhat aimlessly for a few seconds. She hadn't thought of where she'd sit if she couldn't find him and contingency plans started flashing across her mind, also making her light-headed. She spun around and started frantically searching for her newest friend but soon gave up and instead looked for the nearest free seat.

"Elsa!" she heard a shout from behind her and turned to see Kristoff standing with his hand raised. When he saw that she noticed him, he beckoned from her to come over with his hands before sitting back down, "there's a seat here for you!"

Elsa smiled and navigated her way around other people and their bags as she approached the table he was sitting at. A couple of people were already seated so she paused as Kristoff stood back up and nodded his head down at his company.

"Ah, sorry," Kristoff put a hand on the shoulder of the boy next to him as he introduced him, "this strapping lad is my younger brother Sven. He's a junior and a bit quiet and shy but he's a fantastic bloke."

Sven blushed but waved his hand at Elsa affably, "nice to meet you." Elsa smiled back at him but didn't wave as she was still standing with her tray of food in her hands.

"It's nice to meet you too Sven," she bowed her head towards him slightly as a similar friendly gesture, "my name is Elsa."

Kristoff released Sven's shoulder and pointed his arm towards the other companion who was seated opposite him and more towards Elsa's side of the table, assuming that she were to sit and take the available free chair. He had his head facing down towards his plate and seemingly wasn't aware of anything going on around him.

"This over here is Olaf," Kristoff hoped that that would rouse Olaf but he seemed absorbed in whatever he was preoccupied with. Kristoff laughed with a fluster before reaching over and grabbing Olaf's hand, causing him to lose grip of his Nintendo.

"Kristoff, I was doing a speedrun!" Olaf complained but it sounded more like he was singing a children's jingle.

Kristoff raised his eyebrows and gestured towards Elsa, "this is my new friend Elsa, would you like to introduce yourself?"

It was probably for the best that Elsa couldn't see Olaf's face as Kristoff could swear that he could see the colour drain from his cheeks in but moments, making him look like a snowball. Olaf tentatively turned and stood slightly before reaching his hand over to shake Elsa's hand.

"Hu.. Hi, um I mean hello!" he paused as he waited for Elsa to shake back but quickly realised that her hands were full, "oh my goodness, how silly of me. Um, oh dear.. uh, I'm Olaf, hi! Wait, I said that already... yes, nice to meet you!"

Elsa could do nothing but smile back at him. She quickly placed her tray on the table and grabbed his hand within hers to shake it graciously, "it's very nice to meet you too Olaf. My name is Elsa and I can already tell that we will be fantastic friends." The smile on her face spread and she saw a mirror of it begin to plaster on the man standing before her. Olaf released his grip and reached his hand up to his face to push his glasses up as they must have slipped down his nose during his movement.

"Do you mind?" Elsa tried to address the empty seat next to him.

"Sit down? Oh, by all means please do!" Olaf responded and sat down in his seat again as she sat in hers. Kristoff smiled to himself and saw Sven chuckling from the corner of his eye. Olaf was a complete social misfit but it was great to see him connect with someone so quickly.

An awkward silence passed over the group now that there had been a new addition to the table. None of the boys knew much about Elsa and didn't really know what conversation she'd be interested in having and she knew nothing about them or the area or public school for that matter.

Elsa decided that there was no sense in just sitting there and after about 15 seconds of silence she piped up, "So, how long have you all known each other?" Seemed to her like a pretty decent first question before she remembered that Sven had been Kristoff's brother, "I mean... obviously you two are brothers so you obviously don't count... obviously." She face-palmed in her mind at how stupid she must have just sounded but Sven and Kristoff just grinned at each other.

"Well, obviously I've known Sven since he was born," Kristoff paused for effect, never missing an opportunity to take advantage of someone else's misfortune, even if it was someone he didn't really know, "obviously." A blush crept up Elsa's cheeks in response which was met with snickers all around.

"I've known Kristoff since high school started," Olaf chimed in, "we went to different primary schools, so we didn't know each other then... obviously." A smile plastered itself to his face and Elsa struggled not to laugh, causing Sven to snort trying to hold back his laughter, at which point they all burst into fits of it.

As they all calmed down and regained their composure, Elsa smiled to herself. She'd found friends and she didn't know why but she could tell that they'd be great and lifelong friends to her. They sort of just clicked with her, like they were on the same wavelength as she was. It seemed crazy to her as she practically knew nothing about them but that thought didn't placate any of her reassurance.

Kristoff was chuckling while he calmed and out of nowhere a fruit which looked like an apricot or peach hit him square on the head causing him to cry out, clutching the affected area in pain. He leaned over and bumped into Sven, causing him to try to brace his brother who was substantially bigger than him as he tried to figure out what was going on. Olaf hadn't been looking and also looked on in query but Elsa looked in the direction that the throw had originated from and saw a table full of footballers laughing to themselves.

She gave them a death glare but none reacted so she supposed that they didn't even notice she was there but as she did she saw one of them with red hair and a chiseled jaw reach into his bag and pull out another of the fruits that he must have previously thrown at Kristoff. Elsa stood and quickly made her way to the other side of the table as he launched the projectile and caught the stone fruit in her hands. Her hand stung as the boy had thrown it with substantial force and it had made a loud slapping sound as it contacted her palm but there was no way in hell that she was going to let them know her discomfort.

Elsa tossed the fruit, which she'd now determined had been a nectarine, on to her and her friends table and put her hand on Kristoff's shoulder. "Are you alright?" she questioned him but suddenly had a terrible feeling and turned back to the other table. She felt the fruit before she could see it as she had turned at the most inopportune of moments. They must have been trying to hit her head as she was turned but it smacked her right in her eye and she immediately crumpled to the ground in a world of hurt.

Her legs lay by her sides as she clutched at her face. The pain was almost unbearable and it took everything that she had not to burst into tears. She heard yelling from behind her and realised that one of her friends must have launched to her defence and she pulled her hand away from her face as she steadied herself to stand. Her vision was a bit blurry but it soon focused and she could see teachers coming over and reprimanding the group of bullies. It gave her a slight feeling of satisfaction knowing that they were now in trouble but that certainly didn't wipe the soreness away.

She turned around and Kristoff was being held around the shoulders by Sven. He must have been the one who had been hurling abuse and itching to start a fight but luckily his young sibling had more sense than Kristoff had. Those footballers would've beaten Kristoff to a pulp. He was a pretty big guy but in a fight with those athletes he was a lightweight. She turned to Olaf and he had a look of shock. Surely he knew and saw bullying before but it looked to her as if they only way he dealt with it was to simply freeze up and hope the problem went away.

"Guys?" Elsa quickly grabbed their attention, causing Olaf to look up and Kristoff to cease his struggling and give her his attention, which meant Sven could release him from his grip. "Are you all okay?" They all nodded to her and as she was about to sit down to continue her lunch she felt the stares of a hundred people on them. She felt a wave of self-consciousness as she looked around the cafeteria to see everyone in the room looking over to them. She could feel herself blush before feeling a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"The question should be, are you okay?" The sweetest voice Elsa had ever heard had landed upon her ears. She hesitantly turned to see two beautiful blue eyes smothered between a forest of red hair staring at her worriedly. She pulled her hand away and Elsa suddenly wished that she'd place it back.

It took a little too long to realise that she should probably have said something quicker and she started stumbling through her words, "oh, uh... I mean, I'm fine I guess... um, yeah... I'm good, yeah." Elsa could feel blood rushing to her cheeks and cursed herself mentally. The person before her gave a little smirk before responding.

"You should probably go and see the nurse anyway," her voice was like a sweet lullaby to Elsa's ears.

Elsa didn't respond right away, "I'm Elsa." She mentally face-palmed before realising that she had physically face-palmed as well, further making a fool of herself. The girl before her giggled and threw her hand in front of Elsa.

"My name is Anna," it was like listening to a symphony. Elsa took her hand and shook it gently. She was about to release her hand before Anna pulled her to her side and swivelled on the spot so they were now walking side by side. "I'll take you to the nurse. I sure hope that you'll be okay. Your eye is already going red and I think that the impact may have given your some sort of concussion."

Elsa reached up to her eye on reflex and felt how tender her face felt. She turned back to Kristoff and the others, "I'll see you guys later." She waved at them and they all smiled and waved back.

"The infirmary isn't too far away," Anna released her hand as she spoke, "I'll drop you off there but I won't leave until the nurse sees to you. I don't want you sneaking off to class without seeing him."

Elsa didn't really care about the bruise on her face. She'd had plenty of bruises during her life from her ice-skating falls and was used to having them constantly. At this moment she was only concerned about learning more about this beautiful girl walking with her. "Hey, Anna?" Elsa tried to grab her attention and realised that she had it when those precious eyes were staring back at her. She couldn't look into them without going weak at the knees so she turned to face forward and asked, "are you in your senior year?"

"Oh," Anna piped up with a bright sound, "yes, I indeed am."

"Great! Me too," Elsa answered a little too enthusiastically so she toned down slightly, "what classes do you take?"

"Well... I have Graphic design, English and Maths of course, Phys Ed and Biology but my favourite subject is Drama," Anna sounded to Elsa as if she were singing a jingle as she spoke. Her voice carried such a positive energy that Elsa completely forgot the reason that they were walking together. She was interrupted from her thoughts when Anna continued to speak, "Drama is my real passion. I love designing things like dresses and outfits but my real wish is to become an actress. I want to perform in from of thousands of people on Broadway and sign and dance and act my heart out for them all."

"Wow!" Elsa exclaimed, "that's kind of my passion as well. I'm taking Drama too but I'm taking Music as well. I'm hoping to become a stage performer, using my singing and piano to impress those watching me. There's no thrill like performing in front of an audience."

"There really is nothing like it," Anna crooned as she spoke but quickly regained her usual composure (Elsa used the term 'usual' very loosely here as she didn't seem to have a usual), "oh, we're here!"

Anna reached forward and pushed on the door before Elsa remembered what was happening and realised that they were now at the nurse's office. Anna pulled her towards the desk and rang the bell.

"Out in a sec!" they both heard a voice from down the hall to their left and Anna shrugged and walked back into the foyer to sit on a chair. Elsa followed suit and took the seat opposite.

"You don't have to stick around, you know," Elsa started.

"Oh no you don't!" Anna quickly accused while leaning forward on her chair, "there's no way I'm leaving while you sneak off to class without getting a check up."

"Anna, please," Elsa tried to reassure her, "I'm not that kind of person. I keep my promises."

"That may be so," Anna pointedly spoke while relaxing and leaning back in her chair, "but you haven't made any promises yet."

Elsa smiled as she realised that this girl was not only beautiful but smart as well, "good point," Elsa dipped her head in appreciation before continuing to speak, "fine, I promise that I will see the nurse."

"I promise that I will see the nurse..." Anna reiterated before stating, "...before going to my next class and making sure I check out my swollen eye."

Elsa chuckled to herself, "yes, I promise that." She didn't have any intention of bailing on seeing the nurse. She was actually a little worried about it anyway. A black eye on the first day was going to be a bad way to start the year, but at least it'd be memorable.

Anna eyed her sceptically before standing and walking to the middle of the room. Elsa eyed her curiously before the redhead spoke, "alright, I believe you. I'll see you in drama later on today." Anna made her way to the exit door and pulled it open and began to leave.

"Hey, wait!" Elsa called out and Anna turned her head back, "what home room do you have?"

"I have E13," Anna answered and Elsa wished she could fist-pump but didn't want to look like a complete idiot in front of this goddess.

"Me too!" Elsa smiled instead of her other elaborate celebrations that she wished she could do.

"Well, I guess we'll be seeing quite a bit of each other then Elsa," Anna smiled back and proceeded through the threshold. Elsa smirked as she did and thought about how soft and full her lips looked to her. She'd never felt this much desire for someone before, nowhere near this much desire, and the feelings stirring within her were starting to make her light-headed. She rested an arm on the rest of her chair and cradled her head in her hand.

As soon as her face hit her hand she was roused by the noise of the nurse bounding into the foyer and knocking over a plastic cup full of pens which scattered all over the floor.

"Oh dear, not again!" it seemed to Elsa that this was not the first time that this guy had knocked this particular pen holder off the bench. She stood up and got on her knees beside the nurse and helped him pick up the pens. He looked over and gave her a quick smile.

"Thanks for the help," he said as he took the few pens Elsa had picked up from her.

"Quite alright there..." she left the sentence open, hoping that he'd finish it for her.

"Oh, my name is Oaken," he finished for her.

"Oaken," Elsa held her hand out for him, "it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Elsa."

"Well, well," Oaken piped up, "it's been a while since I've been greeted with such fantastic manners." He graciously took her hand and shook it gently before continuing, "now! What seems to be... oh my! What happened to your face?" he gently reached up and probed her tender cheek and eye socket which made her flinch back instinctively.

"A wild fruit projectile appeared," Elsa scoffed.

"Why didn't you use max repel do avoid the situation completely then?" his question made Elsa look up and when she saw his grin she smiled back at him, appreciative they he understood the reference.

"Regardless of how it happened, can you do anything to help me?" Elsa asked back.

"Well, other than giving you some ice to make the swelling go down, not really... no," Elsa figured as much but thought that he might've had some miracle cream or something, "surely you would have known that though so why did you really come here?"

Elsa sighed, "I was forced to come."

Oaken's interest peaked at this point, "what do you mean by that?"

Elsa sighed again before making a mental note to herself to stop sighing so much, "a bunch of idiot footballers were bullying my new friends so I stood up for them but got clobbered by a nectarine. Out of nowhere, this girl came and pretty much ordered me to come here before next class so that's why I'm here."

"I see," Oaken nodded in understanding, "Hans and his friends. I couldn't tell you how many students have come here due to him and his goons forcing them here."

"Kristoff told me to be wary of some people here," Elsa remembered from the assembly, "are these the people that he was talking about?"

"Elsa," Oaken took a sullen look and lowered his voice, "you have no idea. Keep your head down and don't do anything out of the ordinary. If you do anything that gains you some kind of notoriety then you will be tormented relentlessly. Hans and his friends are bad enough but you do not want to incur any sort of wrath from Jacqueline and her entourage."

"I've heard a lot of bad things about her," Elsa tried to dismiss him, "but I don't think I have anything to worry about."

Suddenly, Oaken grabbed her by both shoulders and roughly caught her attention, "listen to me very carefully. You seem like a fantastic person and I don't want to see you get hurt. Don't do anything to get their attention. Do you understand?" Elsa thought about dismissing him again but he could see how sincere he was being and suddenly she felt a chill run down her spine.

"Alright," Elsa hesitantly agreed, "I'll stay out of trouble."

He released her arms and nodded, "good!" He threw a smile back on and went to the nearby freezer to grab an ice-pack. He grabbed a hand towel and wrapped that around the pack before walking back and passing it to her, "put this on your face and gently leave it there for at least 15 minutes. There's a room just around the corner..." he used his hand to direct where he was mentioning, "...where you can lie down and rest so please feel free to do so. When you're ready to go back to class, let me know so I can write a note for you."

Elsa understood that this was her queue to leave him alone. "Thanks very much, Oaken," she bowed her head slightly to him.

Elsa stood and made her way towards the vacant room, "Elsa," he said again to garner her attention and she reciprocated by turning back to him, "remember what I said. Don't do anything noticeable."

Elsa didn't respond but she nodded in understanding instead. She made her way to the small room and lay down on the bed. What could possibly be the worst that could happen, and indeed what could possibly be a valid reason to be bullied? Didn't this school have a disciplinary committee or something to prevent bullying on campus? She shook her head to physically and mentally throw the thoughts from her mind and as soon as she did so she thought again about Anna.

Anna had been, for lack of a better world, beautiful. Her strawberry-blonde hair was tied into two braids on either side of her head. Her blue eyes were both entrancing and piercing at the same time and drew Elsa inside of them like a vortex. She realised that Anna was one of only a few people who wore a dress at school, mostly everyone else wore a shirt and pants or jeans. The dress had been a deep blue with snowflakes printed on it towards the bottom with a lighter shade of blue for the sleeves which went half way down her upper arm. The freckles that dotted her face had made Elsa want to reach out and gently touch them to made them pop, knowing that they wouldn't but at least giving her a reason to touch what was surely the most supple skin imaginable. Elsa sighed again though this time it was lovingly. She had strong feelings for Anna but it upset her that she'd undoubtedly never feel the same way back. At least there was the possibility of being friends with a goddess so this at least made Elsa feel a lot better.

Elsa rested her head back on the pillow, and although it was quite firm and uncomfortable it nevertheless calmed her down and she felt her eyelids begin to slump. Within a few seconds she was in a gentle slumber with the icepack precariously balanced on the left side of her face. A small smile greeted her lips as she dreamt of a time far in the future where she and Anna were walking through the park hand-in-hand whilst stealing small kisses from one another when they thought no-one else was looking.

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><p>If anyone has any questions about the schooling system in this story, please ask me as I am from Australia and I'm using our education model as a guide but I'm also trying to avoid using the terms we use as much as possible to avoid any confusion that people from other countries will probably experience.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4 - Sonnet

Sorry for the wait on this chapter. The lead-up to Christmas is always a busy time for me.

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><p>Elsa woke a short time later and felt refreshed even though her back was sore from the poor quality of the mattress she was lying on. She could hear voices from a small way away but couldn't hear what was being said so she tried to block it out and stretched her legs out to loosen the muscles. She raised her watch to the front of her face and saw that it was around 2pm so it was about half way through her free fifth period class so she had time to make it to her Drama class in the last period with Anna. She could swear that her heart skipped a beat at that thought and instantly sat up and pulled her knees up to her chest.<p>

She took a moment to rub her eyes and then hugged around her knees as she rested her cheek down sideways and closed her eyes. She dreamt of pushing Anna forcibly against the lockers somewhere along the halls and kissing her roughly and feeling her reciprocate with the same gusto, not even caring that there were other students walking past, some ogling and others disgusted but all of them looking regardless. Elsa could feel the warmth spread through her body and opened her eyes up spontaneously as she shook her head to try and shake those images from her mind. It seemed to succeed in doing just that so she swung her legs out over the edge of the bed and leaned forward to stand on her forefeet but was interrupted in doing so when the curtain to her room was pulled open and Kristoff stood before her with a worried look on his face.

"Elsa!" he yelled, "are you okay?" She was touched by his concern.

"Kristoff," she relaxed back and sat on the edge again, "I'm perfectly fine." Elsa scooted over and he took the hint and proceeded to sit next to her.

"I'm sorry Elsa, I..." Oaken was hurrying into the room to apologise for some reason before he saw the two teenagers next to each other on the bed. The both looked up at him expectedly before he continued while blushing, "Oh, dear.. I'll just leave you two to your privacy." He closed the curtain gently and slowly walked away from the room.

Elsa didn't understand what was up with him so she turned to her side and saw that Kristoff was also blushing the same scarlet. "Kristoff, why are you blushing?"

"It's.. um, never mind that," Kristoff stumbled over his words. He figured that it'd have been pretty obvious that Oaken had assumed that they were in a partnership but Elsa seemed not to realise that so he figured it best to try not to embarrass her, "I didn't see you for the rest of lunch and the guys and I were worried about you so I snuck out of class to see if you were alright."

"How'd you get out of your class?!" Elsa exclaimed.

"Don't worry," he laughed and shrugged, "my Chem teacher is a real goofball and doesn't pay attention to much other than what's in his beakers and written on his blackboard."

Elsa smiled, "well, thanks for checking up on me but I promise you that I'm perfectly fine." He eyed her dubiously before realising that she meant it and forced himself to stand up and walk to the curtain.

"Well, come on then," he outstretched his hand to help her up, "let's get you to class. Wouldn't want you to miss any more of the days studies."

Elsa grabbed his hand and he again blushed as he lifted her up gently. They made their down the hallway and towards the exit of the infirmary before Elsa stopped in her tracks, "wait! I have to thank Oaken!"

"It's okay, Elsa!" a voice said behind them, "no thanks necessary." Elsa turned to see Oaken sitting behind his desk, tapping away at his computer. She smiled when he looked up at her and nodded her head slightly, her heart warming when she saw the grin on his face, "now, head on straight to class. Don't let your boyfriend get you into any trouble."

Elsa looked over to Kristoff and saw the same blush from before and then it suddenly clicked inside her and she realised what Oaken must have thought when he'd stumbled upon Kristoff and her just after he'd barged in the room. She blushed a beet red and shook her head profusely, "Oaken, that's not... we're not that.." Elsa fidgeted with her braid and turned her head to face him and Kristoff and then back again as she spoke but she couldn't handle the tension so she turned and ran out of the room as fast as she could. Kristoff had wanted to admonish Oaken but he'd really done nothing wrong so he just followed after Elsa with a groan as he tried to catch up to her.

"Elsa!" he called out as he jogged. She was walking at a very fast pace, but she wasn't running, "wait up Elsa."

Elsa slowed down and turned to see Kristoff's face. He caught up with her and continued, "hey, I'm sorry that he assumed that. I should've mentioned something earlier but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." Elsa stopped walking and sighed out loud. Kristoff stopped just ahead of her and turned back to look at her as she raised her eyes to look at him.

"I don't blame you Kristoff," Elsa explained, "I'm not too great at social interactions and I just run away from confrontations such as that."

"I understand," Kristoff stood in front of her but didn't approach, "let's just get you to class." She looked up and nodded to him and they began walking towards the drama department. They walked for about 20 seconds before they both heard the bell ring, the hallways soon filling with students from seemingly nowhere. They both struggled past as people ran in different directions to get to their next classes but eventually they both fell in next to each other at the doorway into the large theatre room for her drama class.

"This is where I bid you a good day," Kristoff turned to his new friend, "hey listen..." She looked over to him before he spoke on, "I was wondering if you wanted to do something tonight, or perhaps tomorrow or later this week, go see a movie or something? We could get to know each other a little better."

Elsa pondered his question for a second before answering, "that sounds like a great idea Kristoff," she saw his eyes light up at her response, "will you invite Sven and Olaf along as well? I'd like to get to know them better too!" Elsa saw his eyes fall pretty shortly after but he blinked quickly and he smiled back at her, even though it didn't seem genuine.

"Sounds like a great idea Elsa! I'll speak to them after school." Kristoff tried to sound positive but he hadn't wanted it to be that kind of event.

"Is there something wrong?" Elsa had noticed his behaviour was a little odd but didn't understand it. Sometimes she hated being socially inept. She knew something was up but she didn't have the insight to know exactly what it was and it both frustrated and infuriated her at the same time.

"Nah," Kristoff waved his hand to blow it off as nothing, "hey, lemme take your number down so I can call you with what the others say." He whipped out his phone in a heartbeat and Elsa riddle off her number as he keyed buttons on his phone. "Great! Well, I have to get to class so I'll talk to later tonight or tomorrow at school!" He had to get out of there quickly before he either made more of a fool of himself or said something he'd regret.

"See you later, Kristoff!" Elsa called after him, causing some of the people nearby to look over at her strangely. She shrugged it off, not knowing why they cared, and pushed the door to her class and made her way inside. There were several seats already assembled towards the middle of the room with a few people already seated so she made her way over to join them all.

Elsa dropped her bag at the leg of the chair and crossed her fingers in her lap, idly tapping her thumbs together as she took in the room around her.

The room had a small stage behind her where it was obvious that people would rehearse. There was a whole heap of stacked chairs to the far side of the room that could be brought out for seating during an event, although she figured that larger events would take place in the auditorium. Towards the front of the room where she was facing was a large pinboard with heaps of pictures attached to it, some of which seemed quite old so it seemed likely that they were past students or teachers or people who'd gone on to do great things from this school. To the right of that was a heap of set decorations, big cut-outs of trees and bushes and a skydrop.

She turned to face the door as she heard it open again and that was when their eyes locked. Elsa stared deep into those aquamarine eyes and didn't realise that she had been peering until Anna self-consciously drew a stray lock behind her ear and lowered her gaze as she approached. Elsa blinked and looked down at her feet as well, feeling a surge of heat to her face in embarrassment. She looked up to see Anna standing before her, seemingly sharing a similar tint on her own cheeks.

"May I sit with you?" Anna asked, motioning to the vacant seat next to Elsa. There were plenty of seats nearby, so clearly she must have decided that she had wanted to sit next to her.

Elsa hurriedly scrambled to grab her bag and move it to a harmless place, "but of course milady." She shook her head timidly as she'd yet again made a fool of herself and looked up to see Anna's response. She had a hand over her mouth and her eyes were squinted as she giggled gently. She opened her eyes back up and there wasn't any harshness there, causing Elsa to breathe a sigh of relief.

Anna spun on the spot and sat down in the chair, grabbing a small pink piece of fabric from her bag and wrapping it around her wrist. Elsa watched her curiously in silence and realised all too late that Anna had noticed. She was saved from making an excuse when Anna explained, "it is a gift from my mother. She used to be an actress and this was a clipping from the dress of her very first play. I keep it around as a memento whenever I am acting and it reminds me of how great an actress she was."

"That's.." Elsa stuttered, "..really sweet, Anna." Anna looked up at her and smiled shyly at Elsa's words, which in turn made Elsa smile shyly back. Elsa couldn't be sure, be it seemed like Anna leaned a little bit closer to her after that.

The door suddenly and loudly burst open at that moment and everyone in the room, which was now around 20, turned to the door and wondered what had caused the intrusion.

A large man came bustling into the room backwards as he held a mountain of papers in his hands as well as an instrument in its container dangling from one of them. The door slowly closed on its own due to its door closer at the top. Elsa thought he looked a little unsteady on his feet as he seemingly stumbled into the amphitheatre. She stood quickly and rushed over to take his papers from him and as her hand reached out and took the papers, he lost his grasp but luckily she already had them safely, preventing a colossal mess.

He looked over to her and nodded his head politely before walking to the front of the room. He pulled a small table over and placed his instrument case gently on the bench as Elsa put the papers she'd been carrying down as well. She began to retreat to her seat before he gently held her shoulder. She turned as he spoke, "thank you young lady. You're very kind."

Elsa was too shocked to do or so anything so she just turned and retreated towards her seat. As soon as she sat down. She turned to see Anna smiling at her. "What?" she asked self-consciously, before lifting a hand to her cheek and brushing her fingertips gently across.

Anna could tell that Elsa was extremely shy. She wanted to get closer to her so they could be friends as pretty much everything so far that she did made Anna feel like Elsa was a wonderful person but it was hard to illicit any conversation from the blonde. "That was a really chivalrous thing that you did. Someone might mistake you for a gentleman if you didn't look so beautifully and elegantly feminine."

Anna realised her error as soon as Elsa's cheeks went scarlet so she quickly amended, "sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I was just trying to say that I think you are a really nice person." Elsa's breath hitched noticeably but she quickly started breathing normally.

"Thanks Anna. You helped me in the cafeteria too so I think you're also really nice," Elsa tried not to blush but she knew there was no chance of that.

Anna smiled softly, "thanks Els."

Elsa looked up at the nickname she'd used and furrowed her eyebrows. Anna understood the gesture and continued, "What? Friends can't use nicknames with each other?" Anna defended herself with a smile.

Elsa turned back to look at the man at the front of the room. He'd finally finished organising his papers and had started gathering the attention of the students. "Friends, huh...?" Elsa's thoughts lingering and Anna only just heard her question. She gently grabbed Elsa's hand in her own and squeezed it, causing Elsa to whip her head towards her in alarm.

"Yes. We are friends and I won't take no for an answer!" Anna giggled as Elsa grinned.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Elsa answered and turned back to the front of the room. Anna somehow knew that this was the end of conversation for now. She released her grasp on their hands, feeling bitingly cold for some reason and softly rested her hand on the knee nearest to Elsa. Their shoulders were touching and it all felt to Anna to be slightly more intimate than it appeared objectively. Maybe she was imagining things but she felt different about Elsa than she did about anyone else. Different in a good way but different in a scary way too. She was saved from further thoughts by a booming voice reaching the ears of the students seated which ended all the conversations that had been happening.

"Greetings class," the man's voice blared through the room so much so that nobody could possibly have continued any conversations even if they tried, "My name is Kai and I will be your dramatically dramatic drama teacher for the year." He did a swivel and extended his hand up to the roof as he spoke, evidently a fan of expressing his words through actions as well. Some laughter rang out around Elsa but it quickly died down.

"This year will be a little different to past years. In past years, we've just picked people to do parts and run with that for the entire semester but seeing as it is senior year, we want the very best actors in the school to play leading roles at the annual graduation ceremony to put on the very best performance that the school can possible do. To do this we will be running a small competition whereby I will decide upon the most dynamic and impressive couple to play the leading roles!"

There was plenty of whispering as the news was told. It seemed that this was a little different to normal, although Elsa had no idea what normally happened. She could sense Anna stirring in her seat and glanced over to see why but only saw a frown on the redhead's face.

"So," Kai continued and clapped his hands together twice, "up you all get and sort yourselves into boys at the back and girls at the front of the room." People began standing and moving about the room as they sorted in to the correct places. It didn't take long and Kai did a quick head count when everyone had moved.

He seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking up, "we have 14 girls and 12 boys. It seems as though one group will have to go without a boy but no matter," he paused for effect, "alright! Boys come over this side and bow to the ladies to obtain the honour of being their partner. We don't have all day now."

Most of the boys seemed a little hesitant but a few of the braver ones started walking towards the girls confidently. The first to arrive gently bowed and held his hand out for a pretty little girl with blonde hair who giggled to her friends nearby, seemingly happy to have the young man ask her to be her partner, before placing her hand in his outstretched hand, signifying that she'd be his partner. The other boys took a bit of a hint from his actions and all started repeating the same motions. Some of them got rejected, maybe because the girls had known them to be bad actors or they perhaps didn't like them. One of the boys came up to Anna and held his hand out for her and she looked like she was about to accept but she took a quick glace at Elsa and apologised before standing next to Elsa and leaning her shoulder on the blonde-haired teen.

It seemed as though Anna had decided that she wanted Elsa to be her partner, causing the socially inept student to almost choke. The poor gentleman seemed a little crushed but hastily moved to the girl on Anna's other side, which she readily accepted. Elsa hesitated for a moment before realising that she'd have to ask Anna to be her partner so she took a step forward and bowed with a outstretched hand to the beautiful girl in front of her. Elsa couldn't bring herself to lift her face up to look into those eyes, but the feeling as a warm hand enveloped her own was enough to cause her heart to pound audibly against her chest. She stood up properly and retook her place next to Anna, sneaking a cautious glance at her partner, who had been looking at her as well. Elsa quickly turned away in shyness but received a gentle squeeze of reassurance in her hand. It didn't take long for the rest to group up and Kai signalled for everyone to sit down in their pairs.

Elsa led Anna back to their previous seats and held her hand out for Anna to sit first. She graciously accepted with a small blush before Elsa took her seat also.

"Alright, we have not decided upon a play that we will be doing this year so this is your chance to make the choice." Everyone seemed confused so Kai elaborated. "Each of your groups will now pick a spot around the room and begin reciting lines to each other, performing a scene from one or more plays that you both know. I'll wander around and take note of what everyone seems comfortable with and who is doing great at leading and hopefully by the end of this class we will know what play we will be doing and who will be leading!"

Elsa saw enthusiasm amongst the group but couldn't help feeling like Kai hadn't planned what to do this year and took the lazy option in letting the students decide for him. She turned to Anna and gave a weak smile, which caused her to smile back and put her hand on top of Elsa's, making the blonde flinch but she didn't pull away.

"Alright!" Kai's voice boomed again, "pip-pip! You know what to do, get to it!"

Some students bounced up eagerly while others stood sombrely to stand and move to a comfortable position. Elsa and Anna stood and made their way towards the corner near the entry door and swung their bodies around to be facing each other.

Elsa didn't know what to do or say so she stood awkwardly before Anna, twiddling her thumbs together. Anna grabbed up her hands and spoke, "do you know Romeo and Juliet?"

Elsa smiled before returning to a stoic appearance, "but of course!"

"Alright then, might as well start with that. You be Romeo," Anna instructed.

"Hey! Why do I have to be the guy?" Elsa protested and rested a clenched fist on her hip.

Anna raised her eyebrow and grinned, "because I said so and that's final! Besides, you are the one who asked me to be your partner, which makes you the guy!"

Elsa wasn't one to argue and promptly bent over to her persuasive will. "Fine," she sighed in response and took Anna's hands in her own before reciting the lines she'd memorised thousands of times before.

_If I profane with mine unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:_

_My lips, these two blushing pilgrims, readily stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss._

Anna smiled as she recalled scene 5 vividly and continued Juliet's lines.

_Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this,_

_For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands dost touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss._

Elsa took a step forwards and Anna took a small, half-step backwards which effectively brought them half a step closer together, so close that they could feel each others breath and smell each others perfume. Elsa had a little trouble maintaining her concentration in such a state but the lines came to her subconsciously as she lost most of the control of her body.

_Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?_

Anna took the customary step sideways, releasing a hand furthest away and started to feel the emotion of the act. Elsa's lips turned upwards in a slight smile as she watched her theatre.

_Aye, pilgrim, lips that they must use in their prayer._

Elsa didn't turn around to notice that most of the other groups have stopped to watch both of them, seemingly entranced in watching the fantastic spectacle that the two girls were displaying for them in their recital. Kai stood about ten paces behind with a gleam in his eye but both Romeo and Juliet were completely unaware of the attention they were receiving.

_O' then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair_

Elsa reached and grabbed Anna's hand in hers, intertwining their fingers in a small hand embrace. She could feel the warmth spread through her skin and relished each sensation.

_Saints do not move though grant for prayers' sake!_

Anna pulled her hand away abruptly and spun on the spot. Elsa quickly spun her back and closed the gap between them, almost pleading her next line.

_Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from mine lips, by thine.. my s..._

Elsa stopped. Anna stood before her, eyes half-lidded and standing with a hand in each of hers, gently resting on the balls of her feet to achieve the height needed to complete the action that was about to take place. Elsa suddenly realised the situation of both where they were and the next step that the play would take and took a sudden and harsh step backwards, crashing into someone.

Anna immediately opened her eyes fully and about a half-second later Elsa could see the recognition in her eyes as she realised also what had almost happened. Their hands fell apart, no.. their hands were thrown away from themselves in embarrassment, and each blushed the most redly red imaginable. Elsa turned and looked up to see Kai beaming down at her and then looked around to see another 24 sets of eyes just staring straight in their direction. The horror was too much and she ran straight for the door.

"Wait!" she remembered vaguely hearing Kai call out to her but the tears lashing her cheeks and freezing upon them took all of her concentration at that point. She heard the door slam behind her and ran down the hall before turning the corner about 20 metres forward and resting her hands on the wall, dropping her head down as she started hyperventilating.

What had she done?! On the first day of school she had almost kissed a girl and made a complete mess of not only her life but Anna's as well. No-one could know about her lesbianism, she would be ostracised. She shook her head in disbelief, trying to wake from whatever dream, or perhaps nightmare, she was experiencing. She raised a hand to wipe away her frozen tears and growled as they'd become stuck, not budging one bit.

"Elsa..." a gentle voice called from next to her. Elsa knew that voice. She recognised the tenderness but she hadn't heard her speak in that tone before. She almost feared to look up but she forced herself to look into Anna's eyes anyway. She had expected to see anger or had expected to feel a sting to her cheek but all she saw was kindness. Elsa's heart thawed. She didn't realise it right then, but she'd fallen. She'd fallen so hard and fast that she didn't even know what had already happened.

"A..." Elsa stammered, "Anna, I am so sorry. I should not have chosen that scene. It was a completely stupid idea. We shouldn't have.."

"Shh," Anna stepped forward and rested a hand on the blonde's shoulder, instantly causing Elsa to relax and stand more upright. "It happens. Plays are emotional and I can tell that you take your acting seriously, much like I do. I admire that in you, but please don't feel ashamed."

Elsa felt like asking how she could even think about managing that but decided instead to just nod and try to agree with her. Anna saw right through it though, "I mean it, Elsa. Seeing you express yourself through theatre was fantastic and you shouldn't feel ashamed of that."

"Anna.." Elsa started protesting, "we almost.." She couldn't say the word.

"I know," Anna nodded and looked away, "but it was part of the play, right? It wasn't real." Anna was trying to make Elsa feel better but inside she was lying to herself. It hadn't just been the play. Anna had never clicked with anyone but something about Elsa brought out desire in her that seemed to make romantic stories and movies look somewhat factual to her now. She had wanted to feel those tender pink lips on her own, had wanted to run her hand through that straight and surely silky smooth hair while pulling her body flush against her own.

"I suppose you're right," Elsa's response snapped Anna out of her reverie, not realising that Elsa's thoughts had been very similar.

"Do you want to head back inside to finish the class?" Anna asked, holding her hand in the direction of the drama room. Before she could illicit a response, she could see the conflict in Elsa and dropped her hand and instead reached forward to rest it on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll go and grab out backpacks and we'll leave early. I'm sure Kai will understand."

Elsa looked dumbstruck and stammered out a response, "thank you." How had she known exactly how she felt? Anna quickly left and gently closed the door behind her, emerging about 30 seconds later with both backpacks and some kind of note.

Elsa met her half way down the hall and slung her pack over her back as she questioned, "what is the note?"

"Kai wrote it, explaining why we're out of class," Anna explained, "just in case locker patrol or a teacher asks."

"Good thinking," Elsa lauded.

"Kai's idea," Anna dismissed.

"Still a good idea," Elsa pointed out, seemingly feeling better already; surprising both Anna and herself.

"Mhmm," Anna responded. Silence overcame them then.

After a few moments, Elsa spoke, "should we head out to the front of school?"

"Sure," Anna beamed back. They walked in mostly silence, their footsteps clashing on the floor loudly. As Elsa held the door open for Anna, earning some thanks, she spoke up, "hey, Anna. Kristoff invited me out after school. Did you want to tag along? I asked him to invite Olaf and Sven as well."

"I wouldn't want to impose..." Anna started.

"The last thing it would be would be an imposition." Anna seemed to ponder the idea for a while as they made their way to the front footpath.

"Tonight I assume?" Anna questioned, earning a nod in return from Elsa, "I can probably do something."

"Great!" Elsa jumped on the spot as they reached the bus stop, "I'll call you after school then."

They stood in silence for a moment, "Elsa, you don't have my phone number..."

Elsa blushed at that. How could she be so stupid? "Right..." Elsa fumbled into her pocket, "Anna, can I have your number?"

"Bit early isn't it?" Anna teased, "you haven't even offered to get me a drink yet!"

Elsa furrowed her eyebrows as she looked up, not understanding but soon after realising what she'd implied. The blush that followed ran down her neck and she could feel the heat on her chest also, "I didn't mean.."

Anna burst out laughing, "I didn't mean it. I was just joking around. Pass me your phone." Elsa did as requested and Anna mashed a few buttons before returning it. "I'm gonna walk home today seeing as how beautiful the day is. I'll be expecting your call later tonight! See you later Els." Anna waved and laughed when Elsa waved back awkwardly. Elsa couldn't help feeling like she was a complete moron but if only she knew that Anna found her behaviour adorable.

Elsa watched, almost stared, at her until Anna made her way around the corner nearby. She breathed a huge breath that she didn't know she was holding as she waited for the school bus. Getting out of school early meant nothing when you have to wait 10 minutes for the bus anyway. She sat on the bench and looked at her phone screen. It had timed out and gone black so she hit the softkey and the school reappeared. She opened the contacts list and saw the new number that had been added and smiled lovingly. Anna had entered her phone number under the contact name of "Juliet". Elsa lifted the phone and held it against her chest as her emotions washed over her. She couldn't possibly have been in love but she definitely felt an attraction to the dazzling redhead

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><p>Have a Merry Christmas everyone. Next update should come before the new year.<p> 


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